In 222, Lu Xun, a new general of Eastern Wu, defeated the Eastern Expeditionary Army of Emperor Liu Bei of the Shu Han Dynasty in the Yiling area. Liu Bei had the numerical superiority of the army, and at the same time occupied the commanding heights of "mourning soldiers must win". However, in the great battle with the Eastern Wu army, Liu Bei's army was almost completely destroyed. In this battle, the Shu Han army suffered a heavy defeat and loss, which can be said to be a heavy loss. As a result, most of the main forces were lost, and the Shu Han regime basically withdrew from the stage of hegemony. So, why did Liu Bei destroy the whole army?
First, let's look at the actual situation at that time. In 219 AD, Liu Bei, who occupied the western part of Jingzhou and the Yizhou region, launched the Battle of Hanzhong. Taking advantage of several months of competition, Liu Bei defeated Cao Cao and seized Hanzhong and Shangyong from Cao Cao's hands, which was the heyday of Liu Bei's clique. But it was only a flash in the pan, because a few months later, Guan Yu, the number one general of Liu Bei's clique and the defender of Jingzhou, began to attack the Xiangyang region controlled by Cao Cao north. Guan Yu's initial campaign was very successful, defeating several Cao Wei armies.
However, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and Guan Yu was attacked by two groups of armies, Cao Cao and Sun Quan, and the Eastern Wu army took the opportunity to occupy the western part of Jingzhou. In the end, Guan Yu was defeated and killed, and Liu Bei's clique was greatly injured. Because the strategy zhuge liang formulated for the group is basically bankrupt, this is the biggest problem.
At that time, Zhuge Liang proposed the strategy of Longzhong confrontation, proposing to occupy Jingzhou and Yizhou and attack Cao Cao in the north from two directions. Liu Bei's series of military operations revolved around this grand strategy. Guan Yu was killed and Jingzhou was lost, which had a great impact on Liu Bei's group. In terms of personal feelings, Guan Yu is Liu Bei's second brother and is in love with his brothers and sisters. Moreover, Guan Yu was the number one general of Liu Bei's clique, and it was necessary for Liu Bei to avenge his second brother. At the national level, Liu Bei's group must retake Jingzhou, otherwise its own group development will be a dead move.
Therefore, in 221 AD, after Liu Bei became emperor, he gathered more than 60,000 troops from all over the country to march east. Please note that the total strength of Liu Bei's group is only more than 100,000. In order to retake Jingzhou, Liu Bei gathered most of the country's army, which was a desperate gamble. At the same time, he also recruited the Wuling barbarian tribe to cooperate with him.
Liu Bei's army advanced on land and water, and at first, the attack was relatively smooth. However, after entering the Yiling area, the war entered a stalemate stage. At that time, Sun Quan sent a new generation of famous generals Lu Xun to defend against Liu Bei's attack. For this young man, Liu Bei did not pay attention to it at all, and even some of the old generals of Eastern Wu did not look up to Lu Xun. But Lu Xun's next deployment made Liu Bei very anxious. Lu Xun ordered the army to hold out without a fight, using the complex terrain of the Yiling area to block the Shu Han army.
Yiling is in the territory of yichang city in hubei province, because of the complex geological structure, it is called Yiling, and there is a saying that "the water is here and the mountains are destroyed". Liu Bei's more than 60,000 troops had to form a long snake array, placed in the narrow hilly terrain of the Yiling area. Because the Eastern Wu army insisted on not fighting, for Liu Bei, the food consumption was close to the peak.
More than 60,000 troops consume a lot of grain every day, which needs to be transported from thousands of miles from the Sichuan region. Due to the difficult roads, a considerable part of the road will be consumed. The two sides confronted each other for several months, from winter to the following summer. In hilly and mountainous areas, summers are very hot. For Liu Bei, either he quickly defeated the 50,000 troops led by Lu Xun, or he had to move his troops to the mountainous and forest areas to escape the summer. In fact, Liu Bei's later decision was not wrong, from the actual local environment, he could only enter the mountains and forests to escape the heat.
As for Lu Xun's staged "burning the company camp," it really exceeded Liu Bei's expectations. If Liu Bei had been able to not despise Lu Xun at first, he would have been able to maintain a minimum of vigilance. The fiasco of the Battle of Yiling was simply salt on the wounds of the Shu Han regime. After the loss of Jingzhou, the Shu Han regime lost 20,000 or 30,000 troops.
The fiasco at the Battle of Yiling caused the Shu Han regime to lose tens of thousands of troops. At this point, the Shu Han regime had temporarily lost the ability to take the initiative to attack. At this time, the Shu Han regime only had tens of thousands of troops left. However, as a monarch who has experienced hundreds of battles, Liu Bei's reaction is also very fast. After Liu Bei's defeat, he immediately retreated to the White Emperor's City, which is the area of present-day Fengjie County in Chongqing. Gather the remaining remnants of the defeated army here to resist a possible new round of attacks by the Eastern Wu regime. It has to be said that Cao Pi's large-scale military campaign against Eastern Wu helped Liu Bei a lot.
In the face of Cao Pi's massive attack, Eastern Wu had to abandon its plan to continue attacking Shu Han and instead defend itself with all its strength against the attack from the north. Taking advantage of this time, Liu Bei actively built the White Emperor City area and strengthened the entire defensive line, and finally Liu Bei died in the White Emperor City. Due to the fiasco of the Battle of Yiling, Zhuge Liang fell into the embarrassing situation of "it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice".